Recommendations of the Editorial team
His most loyal fans – those who would recognize him in an overcrowded amusement park from a distance of a mile – have a deep, almost cellular relationship with Ivan Cornejo’s music. For them, his crushed, brooding ballads are a collection of all the profound feelings that bloom in early adulthood. Corno’s work gives a timeless quality that his songs from the melancholy, eternal heartbreaking sounds of the Requinto guitar are crossed.
His music fits into the larger context of the Música Mexicana, which has been one of the fastest growing segments in Latin American music in recent years. Much of this growth was fueled by the genre Corrido’s Tumbados, the rough old-school meets-street style, which thanks to self-confident stars such as Peso Pluma and Natanael Cano. Rather, Cornejo’s style falls into the category of the sad Sierreño of the Música Mexicana, a direction that has been driven by acoustic ballads, gentler sounds and the unrest of generation Z in recent years. “All fans have something in common: they all have a big heart, are always with their feelings at peace and are not afraid to let them out,” says Cornejo. “They are very, very passionate.”
Singer with a honey sweet voice like Dannylux and Yahritza y Su Esencia belong to Cornejo’s contemporaries – artists who also help young people to discover their feelings. But Cornejo’s music is characterized by a dark, cooler note. Its emotional repertoire has a certain sharpness – it is emotion with a touch of dull. This sound even attracted the tougher boys of the Corridos Tumbados: he is friends with Trap Corridos star Junior H, and even Peso let Cornjo know that he is a big fan.
Text by Julyssa Lopez